What Pu did I just buy?

I've just started getting into puerh. Whilst I'm waiting for a whole bunch of samples from Jing Tea to arrive, I got the following cake from the local chinatown. No information whatsoever besides what's on the three pictures, no date, no recipe number nothing. I think it's CNNP but it looks exactly like a lot of other CNNP cakes. Might anyone be able to educate me a bit about this cake from the pics?

Yeah, I know. It literally has no info what so ever! ....which makes it suspicious. Taste pretty alright though, not amazing but decent. Dark red liquor. I took the phrase 'optimum fermentation' on the ticket to imply it is shu. The leaves don't really uncurl or open up like sheng, but then again, I've never had a very old sheng.

SilentChaos wrote:Yeah, I know. It literally has no info what so ever! ....which makes it suspicious. Taste pretty alright though, not amazing but decent. Dark red liquor. I took the phrase 'optimum fermentation' on the ticket to imply it is shu. The leaves don't really uncurl or open up like sheng, but then again, I've never had a very old sheng.

SilentChaos wrote:Yeah, I know. It literally has no info what so ever! ....which makes it suspicious. Taste pretty alright though, not amazing but decent. Dark red liquor. I took the phrase 'optimum fermentation' on the ticket to imply it is shu. The leaves don't really uncurl or open up like sheng, but then again, I've never had a very old sheng.

Hmmm....if so, this is incredible for 7 dollars!!! Even if it isn't CNNP, still incredible for 7 dollars. Most probably because it's been sitting in the shop for who knows how long. (I can't really tell how long since I'm a newb to pu, but the cake above definitely does not look, feel or taste like newly produced shu). There is quite a few chinese medicine & herbs shops in chinatown over here. They carry a few different pu's but know nothing about pu. No one here drinks pu, so the stuff just sits in these shops (pretty much dry storage condition) and never gets sold and the price never goes up.

SilentChaos wrote:Yeah, I know. It literally has no info what so ever! ....which makes it suspicious. Taste pretty alright though, not amazing but decent. Dark red liquor. I took the phrase 'optimum fermentation' on the ticket to imply it is shu. The leaves don't really uncurl or open up like sheng, but then again, I've never had a very old sheng.

Hmmm....if so, this is incredible for 7 dollars!!! Even if it isn't CNNP, still incredible for 7 dollars. Most probably because it's been sitting in the shop for who knows how long. (I can't really tell how long since I'm a newb to pu, but the cake above definitely does not look, feel or taste like newly produced shu). There is quite a few chinese medicine & herbs shops in chinatown over here. They carry a few different pu's but know nothing about pu. No one here drinks pu, so the stuff just sits in these shops (pretty much dry storage condition) and never gets sold and the price never goes up.

Those are pretty common teas found in just about every Chinatown so not really an amazing find. Most common to see near me is cnnp, Xiaguan, Dayi and a whole bunch of no name non cnnp bricks. Since your new i'd suggest sampling some pu from online vendor before you go back and buy out the whole supply. Your likely to find that those teas aren't as great as you once thought. I did the same thing when i first started drinking pu and ended up wasting money on crap tea that i didn't want to drink anymore.

G-off-re wrote:Those are pretty common teas found in just about every Chinatown so not really an amazing find. Most common to see near me is cnnp, Xiaguan, Dayi and a whole bunch of no name non cnnp bricks. Since your new i'd suggest sampling some pu from online vendor before you go back and buy out the whole supply. Your likely to find that those teas aren't as great as you once thought. I did the same thing when i first started drinking pu and ended up wasting money on crap tea that i didn't want to drink anymore.

Oh yeah, they're definitely no comparison to any of the samples I've had so far. Not ever going to be buying them in bulk. They're however very good for curing urges to drink lots of pu.

If there is no date on the wrap and if assuming it's a legitimate product, then it should be pre-2006 and most likely pre-2005 (after that all wraps are required to have date). Then, $7, Menghai, it really depends on whether the store know what they are doing and where they got the tea. But anyway, $7 is not a big loss.

I know someone who once got legitimate pre-2007 oolong from Chinatown. I guess the chance for puerh is much smaller.

jessica_cn wrote:hi, i can read Chinese, but what do you want to ask?I can know that this is a Yunnan QIzi Puer, made from Menghai materials.

Hmm...actually...looking at it closely, doesn't the Neifei say "Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. Menghai Tea Factory Product"?So, if the tickets are legit then this should be made by Menghai, not just with Menghai material?

gingkoseto wrote:If there is no date on the wrap and if assuming it's a legitimate product, then it should be pre-2006 and most likely pre-2005 (after that all wraps are required to have date). Then, $7, Menghai, it really depends on whether the store know what they are doing and where they got the tea. But anyway, $7 is not a big loss.

I know someone who once got legitimate pre-2007 oolong from Chinatown. I guess the chance for puerh is much smaller.

But then there are these blank wrapper 2006, 2010 CNNP 7572 cakes at Puerhshop? *Confused. It's also the traditional rather than simplified characters.

The stores in question are not teashops, and they certainly don't get their teas from some tea vendor. I'm guessing they got these puerh cakes on personal trips, and the cakes just haven't sold ever. (It's edmonton....not even the chinese here drink puerh.)